


Teach Me Tonight

by AWitchWrites



Category: Gerard Way and the Hormones, My Chemical Romance, frnkiero andthe patience
Genre: Alternate Universe - Student/Teacher, Bullying, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, Homophobia, M/M, Teacher-Student Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-04
Updated: 2017-06-22
Packaged: 2018-09-06 12:42:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8751814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AWitchWrites/pseuds/AWitchWrites
Summary: Frank is a shy and lonely teenager, struggling to just make it through high school as quickly and as quietly as he can. That all changes when he meets his new teacher, Mr Way. (A student/teacher frerard fic)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my second attempt at a chaptered/longer fanfic and hopefully I'll do better and sticking with it this time. Completely unrelated to my student/teacher oneshots and I've done my best to make the characters pretty different to in those fics too. There might be some individual chapter warnings so I'll do my best to add those if they're needed.   
> I hope you guys like it!

**TW: Homophobic language & bullying**

 

The sky was a dull grey colour that morning, the same as most mornings in this town. Frank sometimes thought that maybe it was just their town that was covered in this blanket of grey nothingness, just a giant miserable cloud that settled over their town and brought an almost permanent chill with it. That was what it felt like anyway, Frank was almost convinced that he had forgotten what summer felt like by now and they were only almost couple weeks into September. He hadn't even had a chance to experience the chill first hand yet and he had already gotten sick; the change in weather pretty much always did that to him. But he could hear his mom coming in from work and muttering to herself about how cold it was almost every day.  

Frank himself had been stuck up in his room, bed bound with the sickness that he'd had since the day before school was supposed to start. He'd missed a couple weeks at least by now because a cold was never just a cold when Frank caught it but he didn't care about that. There wasn't anything big he had missing out on at school. He had no friends that would miss him and the only class he had been looking forward to was the new creative writing class he had taken for that semester. He figured he could easily catch up with that. It was time for him to go back though, his mom was insisting that he couldn't take too many days off this year and now that his illness had died down to a simple cough, she insisted that he was well enough to go back. Frank didn't feel well enough to go back. He was still lethargic and tired constantly, having to physically drag himself out of bed whenever he had to. It was almost as if that grey cloud had settled over just him instead of the entire town, putting a weight on his back and weighing him down whenever he tried to move.  

It was useless to argue with his mom though and even he knew that if he spent much more time off it would be even more difficult to catch up. So he dragged himself out of bed that morning and got ready for school, despite how fucking difficult it was for him to even lift his head from the pillow when his alarm went off. Luckily, he wasn't too sleep deprived, having spent most of the two weeks he'd been off sleeping but he was still tired though he shouldn't have been, yawning as he grabbed his school bag and said goodbye to his mom.  

Since, technically, it was his first day back at school, he had to stop at the office to collect his schedule that morning. Meaning he had to push his way through the crowds of students gathering in the halls before class, trying to get the to the head office in time so that he wouldn't be late to his first class (he would have had a genuine excuse if was but he still didn't think his teachers would be too forgiving). The office sat just inside the main entrance to the school, a little way in so that it wasn't right by the doors but close enough to be the first room you'd walk past. There were a row of lockers on the corridor wall opposite and a few students liked to hang around in the doorway, for reasons that Frank still couldn't work out. The office itself was pretty small and plain, just big enough for the receptionists desk and a few filing cabinets. It lead to the headmaster's office which was far larger but just as plain.  

When Frank stepped inside, the receptionist looked up at him, raising an eyebrow slightly. She seemed bored and pissed off already even though the school day hadn't even started and Frank was pretty sure he had to be the first person to go in there. He figured he’d be pretty annoyed too if he had to deal with immature teenagers hanging outside his office all day if he were in her position too. She still seemed to be waiting for him to say something and seemed to be getting impatient so he quickly stepped up to lean against the desk.  

“Um my name’s Frank Iero. I was off sick so I got told to come collect my schedule here?” He explained, biting his lip a little as he looked over at her, pulling away from the desk when she gave him a kind of dirty look. The lady didn’t say anything to him, simply took put a sheet of paper and handed it over to him before she went back to her computer, completely ignoring that he was still there. That was nothing new Frank supposed, letting out a quiet sigh and muttered a thank you before he turned to leave the office.  

The piece of paper was pretty simple. On it was just his name and a timetable with all his classes and free periods marked, thankfully they’d given him the room numbers for his new classes which was a relief. That was all he’d been given though and that was all he had expected he’d need. So after quickly glancing it over, Frank made his way to his locker which he assumed was still the same since he needed to drop off all the stuff he’d bought with him that he hadn’t actually needed. Frank hadn’t been expecting to see anyone else at his locker, he had been pretty lucky last year to get one that was out of the way of where most people tended to hang put in their spare time. When he got there though, he was pretty surprised to see a group of people crowding around what used to be his locker. It wasn't even just a group of any random kids, it was just Frank's luck that it had to be the group of jocks that liked to taunt him on an almost daily basis. Frank had almost managed to forget that this was a thing he had to deal with.  

He debated just turning back to head back to the office to ask about it, hoping that he'd gone unnoticed but it was too late and one of the ringleaders of the group had already looked over and seen him. "Oh look, it's faggot Frankie." He called out to the others, gesturing over to Frank, laughing at his own shitty joke. Frank rolled his eyes a little. He just didn't understand why these people were popular, sure they were semi-decent at sports and most people at their school probably thought they were conventionally attractive but Frank didn't see why that made them so popular. These people had the personality of a bit of cardboard. Especially this guy, Chase. He even had the shitty stereotypical name, Frank didn't understand why they made fun of his.  

The rest of the group laughed along with him though, as if they actually thought it was funny while Frank just looked on, unimpressed. He'd learnt long ago not to let them get to him, it had taken a while but he realised just how stupid these people were it helped a lot in not getting upset at whatever they said to him. They'd picked on him all through high school and though he'd been lucky enough not to get beat up, their relentless teasing had hurt a lot at first, but he'd learnt to ignore it. Now instead of the little stab of hurt he used to feel whenever this group would taunt him, he felt nothing, absolutely nothing, the same way he felt day to day. As if that grey cloud that had swallowed him up and settled a weight on his back had absorbed all of his emotions along with it; the good and the bad.  

He watched as they all laughed at him, rolling his eyes a little and crossing his arms over his chest, waiting for them to just finish already so he could get to his locker. He could have asked, rather demanded, that they move out of his way but Frank didn't dare speak in front of this group, not if he could help it. Whenever he tried to stand up for himself before, it was like the words were just to big to leave his mouth and got stuck in his throat, choking him until he just gave up and kept quiet. That was what it felt like anyway so Frank had long since given up on saying anything when he didn't need to- around this group or anyone.  

"So what does little Frankie want huh?" Chase teased again, making a stab at his height this time, spurred on by the laughter of his 'friends'. Some of the other boys in his group nudged him and even whispered encouragements, not that he needed it, he was going to verbally tear Frank to pieces anyway.  

Frank simply gestured to his locker.  

"You're gonna have to speak up, emo." Chase laughed, shaking his head a little and leaning back against the lockers as his friends all laughed, whispering amongst themselves.  

"I need to get to my locker." Frank said, hating that this asshole had made fun of him for that, not that it was anything new but that was one of the few insults or digs at him that still embarrassed Frank. Or angered him. It was Chase's fault that he was so quiet and yet he insisted on teasing Frank relentlessly for it, as if he knew that it was his fault and wanted to make it even worse.  

"What locker? This one?" Chase asked, raising an eyebrow as he tapped on the locker behind him which he knew full well was the one Frank was talking about. The way he said it made it seem like he was trying t be helpful and nice but his smirk said otherwise. Plus Frank knew that Chase would never willingly try to help him with anything.  

"Yes, that one." Frank nodded, trying not to roll his eyes again as he stood there, just waiting for the catch, the one that Chase was obviously leading up to; one that was definitely going to be embarrassing.  

"Too bad, Iero." Chase chuckled, shaking his head again, butchering Frank's surname, whether on purpose or just out of pure ignorance Frank didn't know nor care. "This ones mine now. That's what you get for taking fucking two weeks off so run along now, faggot."  

There it was. The catch. Frank could feel his face turning a bright red and he hated it; hated the fact that he'd let himself walk right into that and he hated that the receptionist hadn't even mentioned the locker change at all. It took him a moment and another shout of 'fuck off' from someone in the group before Frank turned and stumbled away. He could hear them all still insulting him behind his back, teasing Chase about 'catching the faggot's germs' since he had Frank's old locker and other insults being shouted out by the group as they laughed at him. Frank wasn't sure if he was going to cry or not and he really hoped not, he couldn't' afford to show any sign of weakness in front of them. Even after he was far enough away that he couldn't hear them anymore, stopping back outside the office and leaning heavily against the wall. His face and eyes were burning and Frank really really hoped he wasn't about to cry, not wanting to be judged by anyone else (though he knew they all already did).  

After a moment of just leaning against the wall, Frank managed to calm himself down enough to push himself away from the wall, wiping his eyes with his sleeve even though he hadn't actually cried. The embarrassment and sadness was still there but it had gone from being a burning ache in his eyes when tears threatened to fall to an ache in his chest instead. Frank could deal with that though, he dealt with that on a daily basis except the whole incident had just heightened it, made it worse. He sighed softly to himself, wishing he could just go home already and his day had only just begun. He knew he couldn't though and his thoughts were quickly interrupted by the sound of the bell ringing, making him jump then sigh once more. There was no point in avoiding it, he was definitely going to be late now and he still needed to get the locker situation sorted out.  

There was always the option of just taking all his stuff with him to class and just dealing with it until break when he could go back to the office but if Frank was honest with himself, he really didn't want to go to class right then, even if he did have the new creative writing class first thing. He wanted to put that off for as long as he could and getting his locker sorted was the perfect opportunity to do just that. Even if it meant walking in late and possibly getting shouted at by his teacher, only causing further embarrassment later on, Frank just really didn't want to go right then. So instead of making his way to class, he turned and knocked on the door to the office again, only stepping in once he heard the same, bored 'come in' echo through the closed door.  

When he stepped back into the office, he caught the receptionist's eyeroll and quiet sigh, making him feel pretty shitty for coming back but he supposed it was her own fault for not telling him that his locker had changed the first time he had seen her.  

"What do you need?" She asked, obviously making a consious effort not to be rude.  

"My locker got changed?" Frank said, though it came out as more of a question as he stepped closer to her desk, letting the door fall closed behind him. He fiddled with the strap of his bag as he stood there, watching her root through a desk drawer. 

"Oh yeah, all the students got new lockers this year." She half heartedly explained as she got him out a random locker key, sliding it over the desk to him. "This one should be empty, you'll have to bring the deposit for the new locker in tomorrow morning."  

Frank nodded a little, reaching out to take it, not bothering to check the number of it for now since any locker was better than no locker. He took it and turned to leave with a quick thank you but by the time he'd said she was no longer paying any attention to him anyway so he needn't have bothered. Sighing softly, Frank hurried to leave the room, only stopping to check which locker he'd been given once he'd left the office and the door had closed behind him yet again.  

He supposed he should have seen it coming really. He couldn't have a day go normally for him without something going wrong, the locker key the woman had given him was for a locker all the way at the other end of the school and when he checked his timetable for the room number of his first class, they weren't even close to each other. Sighing to himself, Frank put his schedule back in his pocket and started to head to his locker. On the plus side, he was going to be out of the way of other students again, it just meant that he was probably going to make a habit of being late to his first classes, which wouldn't be a problem if there wasn't the chance he'd get detention for it. Frank just hoped that his teacher was going to be nice enough to let him off this first time at least. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2! I hope you guys like it. Feedback would be really appreciated :D

 

He was about 10 minutes late when he eventually made it to his classroom which he supposed wasn't too bad but it was enough that the class had already started apparently. Frank could hear the teacher talking as he stood outside the door, trying to gather the courage to step inside. He knew that as soon as he walked in, it would go quiet and everyone would turn to stare at him. That was usually the only reason that he bothered to be on time for his usual classes and Frank knew that he'd have to just deal with it this time. So, taking a deep breath, he pushed the door open and stepped inside.  

As he'd thought, all the students turned to look at him and the teacher stopped mid-sentence to look over at him as well. Frank had to admit that if he hadn't already been rooted to the spot with nerves, making eye contact with the guy would have done it. Frank hadn't ever seen a teacher so attractive or young and it looked like half the girls in the class agreed with him since they'd been hanging onto his every word before Frank had so rudely interrupted the class. The teacher was perched on the edge of his desk, instead of actually sitting at his chair, with his legs crossed at the ankles. The suit he was wearing seemed expensive, good quality and it was obviously tailored to fit him. It was just a simple suit, black pants with a white shirt and a black tie but it looked good on him, even if he wasn't exactly slim, the guy was still amazingly attractive. His hair was obviously dyed blonde, styled professionally though and his eyes, Frank couldn't even handle how pretty his teacher's eyes were. It was only when his teacher raised an eyebrow slightly that Frank realised he was just standing there, staring stupidly at him.  

"I-I'm sorry I'm late, Sir." Frank stammered eventually, biting his lip a little as he stood there awkwardly, looking away from his teacher to glance around the classroom to see if there was an empty seat.  

"You must be Frank then." The elder said, his voice low and smooth, almost enough to make Frank shiver. He seemed to pause then as if thinking about something, doing his own sweep of the classroom before turning back to Frank. "You can sit at the back for now and I'll be over in a second to explain things to you and get you set up." His teacher explained with a polite smile, gesturing to an empty seat at the back of the classroom. Luckily, there were two empty seats, one next to the wall and the one directly next to it so Frank took the one next to the wall and set his bag down on the other for now, glad that he wasn't going to have to sit next to anyone at least.  

He tried to listen and follow along with what his teacher was saying but he didn't understand any of it since he'd missed so many classes and even though he tried to follow along, Frank found himself zoning out after only a couple of minutes. He felt kinda bad, especially when he heard a cough from behind him, making him jump and snapping him out of his daydream before someone pulled out the chair next to him.  

"Mind if I sit here, just to explain stuff?" His teacher asked. Frank relaxed then and nodded, reaching to take his bag off of the seat for him.  

"Of course." He murmured, biting his lip a little as he sat up a little straighter and dumped his bag on the floor. He didn't want to turn to look at him in fear of making eye contact and accidentally staring again but he knew it was going to be rude of him if he didn't so Frank shifted a little and turned in his chair to face the elder as he sat down on the seat next to him.  

"So, first things first, I'm Mr Way. I should have probably said that when you came in but I forgot." Mr Way let out a friendly chuckle then, smiling at him politely and looking down at a sheet of paper he'd bought with him. Frank couldn't help smiling a little along with him; he couldn't help it, this guy's smile was infectious and Frank was still trying to get over the fact that he hadn't been told off for his lateness or the amount of time he'd taken off yet. "I teach creative writing, obviously, and art but you're not on my timetable for that class so I assume you didn't take it?"  

Frank nodded before he realised that was the wrong answer and shook his head instead. "No, I didn't." He murmured, trying to fight the wave of disappointment because even though he was shit at art, taking it would have meant that he'd have gotten to spend even more time with Mr Way.  

"That's okay, that's great. Gives you more time to catch up with what you missed in this class then." Mr Way said, smiling a little at him and quickly scribbling down how many days Frank had missed of class and the topics they'd covered on those days. "Since you're behind everyone else for now, you might as well start to try catching up in the lessons, and we'll work out a day for you to come after school to work on things." His teacher mumbled though it seemed like he was talking more to himself than to Frank directly so Frank just kept quiet, watching the way his teacher bit his lip a little as he focused.  

"What days are you free after school, Frank?" Mr Way asked, looking up at him then and smiling a little. Frank shrugged, biting his own lip as he glanced down to read over what his teacher had written already.  

"Pretty much any day Sir." He answered. Frank never had anything on after school unless he got detention for some reason and that hadn't happened so far. 

"Okay, well, I'm free any day other than Mondays since I get detention duties on Mondays but you could come back every day other than that? If you don't mind that is, it would mean you'd get caught up a hell'uva a lot quicker." Mr Way told him. Frank couldn't even believe that he was being given an option and sure staying behind every day could be boring but Frank didn't want to be stuck behind everyone else in the class and be stuck having to do different work than the rest and it wasn't like he had anything better to be doing so he agreed anyway.  

"That would be okay, Sir. I can do that." Frank nodded, albeit reluctantly, looking up at his teacher. He noticed that the man seemed a little surprised that Frank had agreed but a smile quickly spread across the older man's face as he scribbled that down onto the sheet of paper which Frank realised was probably more for his teacher than it was for him.  

"Great! You shouldn't need to stay behind for long. If we say an hour and a half every afternoon just to give us enough time to get started, you should be all caught up within two weeks." Mr Way rambled on a little, scribbling it all down on his piece of paper as if he was making a rough plan for himself. Frank couldn't help but think that he would still be missing out on what the class were doing while he was catching up so he would just need to keep coming back but he didn’t want to be rude and kept quiet instead, just nodding along to whatever was said and smiling politely at all the right moments. He guessed Mr Way would make up a plan that would prevent that from happening: he was the teacher after all.  

Mr Way stopped rambling after a moment and looked up at him again, folding the piece of paper he'd been writing on. "Good, there's only like half an hour left of class but I'll get you set up with some work to do for the rest of class that you can work on at home later." He said, moving to stand up. Frank was slightly confused at that, twisting in his seat to look up at him as Mr Way pushed his chair in.  

"Aren't I staying behind, Sir?" He asked, frowning a little.  

"Oh, you don't have to stay tonight, I know it's short notice but if I get you set up with some work this lesson, I'd like it finished for tomorrow's lesson so we can keep on track with catching you up." His teacher explained, resting his hands on the back of the chair. Frank couldn't keep eye contact with him for too long and he let his gaze drop down to where his teacher was holding on to the back of the chair lightly. He couldn't help noticing that even his teacher's _hands_ were pretty but as soon as that thought popped into his head Frank blushed and did his best to ignore it, cringing inwardly at how weird his own thoughts were. He stopped staring at his teacher's hands then and nodded a little, what Mr Way was saying made sense and even though Frank knew he was going to have a lot of work given to him today for his other classes, he still agreed to getting it finished on time.  

"Oh, okay. I can do that." He murmured, nodding a little as he shifted to sit back in his seat properly after a moment. Getting work done on time was a struggle for Frank, not for anyone else's fault than his own. Procrastination was probably Frank's worst habit and he knew it was gonna be pretty difficult with how tired he already was and he was dreading getting set work from his other classes too. It was inevitable though and in the back of his mind, Frank knew he probably wasn't going to get any of it done. He was pulled out of his thoughts by his teacher's voice again, glancing up at him as the elder spoke.  

"Good. I'll go get the work for you." Mr Way said with a polite smile before he turned and walked back up to his desk. Frank watched him go, sighing softly to himself as he watched as his teacher sat back at his desk and started to root around all the sheets of paper that were piled up on top of it. He hadn't noticed when he first walked in but his teacher's desk was a mess, there were papers strewn all over it and Frank swore he could see a coffee mug buried underneath some of the paper piles. It weirdly suited him though.  

Frank glanced away when he caught himself staring again, looking up at the clock instead to check the time, watching it tick as he leant with his elbows on his desk until he saw his teacher standing up once more from the corner of his eye. He sat up straighter as he watched Mr Way walk back to him, thanking him quietly with a polite smile as he took the work from him.  

"It should be clear what you need to do but if it doesn't make sense then just call me over and I can go through it with you." Mr Way said as he handed it over, sliding it across the desk to him. Frank was sure that it wasn't meant in a condescending way, the older man had been really nice so far and he didn't seem like that kind of teacher but it came out that way anyway. Keeping quiet about it, Frank simply nodded a little and reached into his bag for a pen as he looked down to read through what he needed to do. It was going to be pretty embarrassing if he didn't understand it, especially after what Mr Way had just told him and while Frank was pretty sure that Mr Way wasn’t going to judge him if he didn’t understand it, he still worried about it anyway. 

Luckily, the task that Mr Way had given him wasn’t too difficult, just a simple reading task and when Frank read through what he’d have to do after he’d read it, that wasn’t too hard either. Sighing with relief, Frank got to work after Mr Way had walked away and back up to his desk, the hardest thing was actually concentrating on reading what he'd been given. All he really wanted to do was put his head down on the desk and sleep through the rest of the lesson even if it was only his first class. He had to fight to keep from coughing too, since the class was so quiet, Frank didn't know why put he didn’t want to bring attention to himself like that so not only was he tired but his throat hurt too. He couldn’t help glancing up at the clock every few minutes, willing it to just tick a little faster until he looked up once and saw that Mr Way had looked up at the exact same moment and caught him staring at the clock instead of his work. His teacher didn't say anything and Frank had looked back down at his desk too fast to catch whether or not he gave him a look, it was pretty embarrassing to be caught daydreaming like that even though he was sure that Mr Way was probably used to it. Still, it felt rude especially since Frank had been late and hadn't even apologised for that.  

Frank sighed softly and inwardly cursed himself for being kinda rude, letting his head drop down onto the desk for a moment. He gave up on doing work then, too tired to even lift his head from the desk until the bell rang and the other students started to pack their things away in a hurry. Frank joined them, standing up and packing up his things but taking his time since he really didn't want to go to his next class. A couple of the other students made their way up to the teacher's desk and Frank watched as they just chatted with their teacher for a while, his gaze caught on the how friendly Mr Way seemed; the way he genuinely smiled up at his students and the way he seemed to be actually interested in what they had to say, even if it didn't seem to be school related. Frank had never really had a teacher like that before and he was slightly disappointed that he had missed the beginning of the year and the opportunity to get to know this man. Even though a niggling voice at the back of his head told him that even if he had been here, Mr Way wouldn't have been as friendly with him. It was always the same even when there were teachers like that; they were 'friends' with the more confident kids, not necessarily the most popular ones but the confident ones, the ones that actually spoke in class, the ones that always managed to hand their work in on time. Frank wasn't one of those students so he did his best to stamp down his disappointment, telling himself he wouldn't have had a chance anyway.  

He sighed softly as he slung his bag over his shoulder and left the classroom, heading to his next class reluctantly.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol supposed to be writing a lab report that I have due tomorrow but here I am instead updating my fanfiction, you're welcome. I'm fairly sure this chapter is shit though so sorry for that but I hope you guys like it anyway, let me know what you thought ^-^

The rest of Frank's day was just as boring, if not worse. His other teachers were nowhere near as helpful as Mr Way, they all just expected him to catch up by himself and none of them made the offer of letting him stay behind, which was just as well he supposed because then he would have had to cancel some days with his creative writing teacher.  

The day dragged on, at least his classes did. By the time lunch time rolled around Frank was ready to just give up and skip his afternoon classes to go home and sleep. But he couldn't sleep, even when he got home, he had work to do for all his classes after all and he knew that if he didn't do it it would all just pile up around him. He sighed softly to himself as he joined the lunch line, thinking over all the things he needed to do when he got home. It took a while before Frank finally got to the front of the line, only to find out that there weren't any vegetarian options or if there had been they were all gone. Sighing softly, and vaguely wondering if the universe was just out to get him, Frank just grabbed an apple before paying for it and hurrying out of the cafeteria. He didn't want to hang around and sit by himself in there when it was so crowded and he was only eating a bit of fruit; there wasn't really anywhere else for him to sit though but Frank figured he'd find somewhere.  

He wandered around the hallways for a little while, avoiding all the more crowded places and nibbling at his 'lunch' as he walked. Frank wasn't really hungry, he was still sick and lethargic but he knew he would be hungry later and he thought about saving his apple for between classes for a moment. There wouldn't be anytime to eat it then though since he didn't want to get into shit for being late to his classes and the students weren't allowed to eat during class. So he nibbled at it as he wandered through the relatively empty halls until he found a stretch of the hallway that was actually empty. Sighing with relief, Frank turned to sit against one of the walls, in between classroom doors.  

There was a door opposite him but it didn't look like anyone was in that room and Frank was pretty sure no one would notice him sitting there. Sighing with relief, he got his phone out to scroll through it as he nibbled at his 'lunch'. He hadn't actually been paying attention to what part of the school he was sitting in and he was too engrossed in his phone to notice anyone walking down the halls so it was a surprise when he heard a little chuckle from above him. 

"Back again already? I don't have a class with you this afternoon." He heard from above him. Frank jumped, almost dropping his phone but managing to save it before he slowly looked up to see his creative writing teacher standing opposite him with an amused look on his face and a hand on his hip and a cup of coffee in the other hand.  

"Oh um...I know, I know that, I'm just..." Frank murmured, trailing off a little, face burning up with embarrassment. He couldn't believe he'd been caught sitting on the floor like a weirdo like that. It was even more embarrassing that it was Mr Way that had caught him though Frank didn't know why.  

"I know, I'm just messing. Frank, right?" Mr Way asked, smiling politely down at him and shaking his head a little.  

Frank nodded a little, blushing even more when he realised he hadn't even made a move to stand up yet, looking up at his teacher.  

"Well, Frank, you know I'm technically supposed to tell you that you're not allowed to sit here in the hallways." Mr Way said, rolling his eyes a little. That made Frank smile a little, he'd never met a teacher that was against the system before or at least all the small stupid rules that their school put in place. "I'm supposed to tell you to go sit in the cafeteria or outside but it's freezing outside and I've just come from the café, trust me you don’t want to sit in there."  

His teacher chuckled then and Frank joined in, nodding a little before he murmured a soft, "Me too."  

Mr Way nodded a little then and smiled at him, before gesturing to his classroom door before unlocking it and pushing it open, "You can sit in here if you like. Well...I say 'if you like' but I'm really not supposed to let you sit in the hallways so you don't really have a choice, I'm afraid."  

Frank definitely didn't mind that, sure it would be kinda awkward but sitting in the classroom meant sitting on an actual chair instead of the hard floor and it meant he wasn't going to get forced outside. He coughed a little as he stood up and slipped his phone back into his pocket, smiling gratefully up at his teacher.  

"Thanks, Sir." Frank said shyly as he stepped past him and into the classroom, he stood a little way into the classroom awkwardly. He heard Mr Way kick the doorstop over and push it under the door with his foot to keep it open before his teacher walked past him and over to his desk.  

"You're welcome, Frank. Take a seat." Mr Way said as he sat down at his desk and set his coffee down on the desk. Frank nodded a little as he moved over to sit at one of the tables nearer the front, setting his bag down on the table in front of him. He felt a lore more awkward than he thought he would have been now that he was actually sitting down. Frank had no idea if he was supposed to make conversation with his teacher or if he was supposed to just sit there in silence. He didn't know if Mr Way expected him to get some work done or if he could just get his phone back out. It made him a little nervous to not quite know what he was supposed to do and he tried hard not to accidentally be weird and stare at his teacher.  

"I hope you don't mind if I put some music on and eat my lunch, Frank." Mr Way spoke up after a moment as he reached into a drawer in his desk, pulling out a sandwich as he looked over at Frank before glancing back at his own phone which he must have gotten out while Frank had been distracted, presumably looking through it for some music.  

"No, I don't mind at all." Frank shook his head, crossing his arms on the desk and resting his chin on them as he looked over at his teacher, shrugging a little. He just hoped that Mr Way had good music taste but his worries about that vanished when he heard Iron Maiden start to play from his teacher's phone.  

"Great! Don't you have your own lunch to be eating, Frank?" Mr Way asked, glancing over at him again. He looked a little concerned so Frank was quick to nod, holding up the apple he'd gotten from the cafeteria.  

"That's it?" Mr Way asked, raising his eyebrows a little and shaking his head. "That's not enough for lunch, did you not have anything else?" 

"No, they didn't have anything else vegetarian and I'm really not that hungry, Sir, it's okay." Frank insisted, shaking his head. The last thing he wanted to do was to worry his teacher for make him feel bad for him.  

"Nonsense." Mr Way replied, shaking his head as he set his sandwich down and moved to stand up. Frank's eyes went wide then and he sat up straighter, shaking his head a little. "You're vegetarian, right?" His teacher asked as he looked down at him, raising an eyebrow slightly.  

Frank nodded hesitantly, biting his lip as he looked up at his teacher. "Yes but Sir, I'm really okay with what I've got, it's okay." He said, having guessed pretty quickly what Mr Way was planning to do.  

"Nonsense, Frank, it's not a problem, you need more than an apple for lunch. Just, look after my phone for me yeah?" Mr Way said with a reassuring smile before he hurried and left the classroom before Frank could argue even more. Frank frowned as he watched him go, waiting until Mr Way had left before letting his head drop back down onto the desk with a groan. He hated the idea of people being worried about him and spending money on him and Mr Way was doing both. He was sure that his teacher was only trying to be friendly or help but Frank just felt guilty. He was tempted to just get up and leave to save himself the embarrassment but Mr Way had left his phone and had told Frank to look after it so he couldn't just leave.  

Frank sighed softly to himself and sat there with his head down on the desk until his teacher got back around 15 minutes later. Then he felt even worse since Mr Way had been about to eat his own lunch and he was sure the elder's coffee would be cold by then. Even when Mr Way did walk back in and Frank looked up to see that his teacher had the same smile on his face as when he'd left, the teen still couldn't shake off that guilty feeling.  

Mr Way had walked back in with a veggie sandwich and a Starbucks coffee that he had obviously gone to the local shop to buy which meant he'd gone off school site. That only made Frank feel even worse about the whole thing. He did his best to seem grateful though, thanking him quietly as the elder set the sandwich down in front of him, taking the coffee back up to his desk with him.  

"Anytime, Frank. It's really not a problem." Mr Way reassured him as he sat back at his desk, smiling over at him and shaking his head a little.  

"I know, I just feel bad that you had to spend your money on me. And your coffee went cold." Frank murmured, biting his lip a little as he carefully opened the package for the sandwich his teacher had bought him, glancing over at the elder and watching as the elder did the same with his own.  

"No need, Frank really. You can pay me back tomorrow or something if you really want to but it really didn't cost that much and don't worry about my coffee, I have another one." Mr Way said, smiling reassuringly over at him and shaking his head. "It's really no problem. I have a duty of care for my students, Frank and that includes making sure they eat properly. Got it?"  

Frank was really tempted to argue back with the fact that no other teacher would have done that for him but he didn’t want to seem ungrateful so he nodded slowly, smiling a little at him. "Yeah...thanks Mr Way." He murmured softly before looking down at his sandwich and starting to eat it slowly. The appetite that he had lost came back to him then and he was even more grateful to his teacher for buying him the food now.  

"You're welcome, Frank." His teacher said with a little smile before he started eating his own food, wiping his mouth between mouthfuls. "So, how are you getting on with the work I set?" He asked, turning the music down so they could talk and looking over at Frank.  

The younger was slightly disappointed that the music got turned down but he waited until he'd finished his mouthful before replying, "Good, it's not too bad." He said, covering his mouth as he coughed a little before he smiled politely at Mr Way. "I'll try my best to get it done for tomorrow."  

"Please make sure you do. I wouldn't usually put you under pressure to get it finished so soon but that's the easiest bit so it'd be extremely helpful if we could get that finished for tomorrow." Mr Way explained, smiling at him and reaching to sip his coffee, quickly glancing down at his phone to check how long they had left of lunch.  

Frank just nodded a little and went back to eating his own sandwich then. He figured that was the least he could do since his teacher had went to the trouble of making sure he had lunch, even if he didn't get any of the work done for his other lessons, Frank made a mental promise to himself to at least get that finished. He didn't want to disappoint his teacher and usually he wouldn't care though Frank was blaming his sudden fear of disappointing Mr Way on the fact that the older man had bought him lunch. He finished his sandwich then and looked back over at his teacher.  

"Don't worry, Sir, I'll get it done." Frank said softly, biting his lip a little and reaching for his apple to finish that.  

"Thank you, Frank. You don't have too much else to do, do you?" Mr Way asked and he seemed either genuinely curious or as if he would feel bad if the answer was yes. It was, but obviously Frank wasn't about to tell him that so he simply shook his head.  

"No, not too much." He lied, shaking his head a little and giving a little reassuring smile.  

"Good, good. I know you were off sick so I don't want to overload you with work." Mr Way said, smiling kindly back at him and sipping his coffee slowly, tapping the side of his cup absentmindedly along with the music still playing from his phone, which had changed from Iron Maiden to a band Frank didn't recognise. The music was good though and he found himself accidentally staring at the way his teacher's fingers were tapping against the plastic cup. Mr Way must have noticed him staring because he spoke up again then, setting his cup down and going to reach for his phone.   

"Sorry, Frank, how rude of me. I didn't ask what you would prefer to listen to." Mr Way said, shaking his head at himself as he went to unlock his phone.  

"No, this is really good." Frank hurriedly protested, shaking his head a little. Mr Way stopped then and smiled over at him.  

"Yeah? Have you heard of this band before?" The elder asked, seeming hopeful. Frank sighed softly and shook his head, not wanting to disappoint him but Mr Way seemed even more excited then. "You should definitely give them a listen. Placebo, one of my favourites." His teacher said excitedly before he leant back in his chair and started to sing along to the song.  

"All alone in space and time. There's nothing here but what here's mine. Something borrowed, something blue. Every me and every you. Every me and every you..." Mr Way was actually pretty good at singing or Frank could tell that he would have been if he was actually trying but it seemed like Mr Way was exaggerating and making it bad on purpose. It still made him laugh though as he watched him, interrupted only by the song coming to an end and the bell ringing.  

His teacher stopped then, laughing softly as he reached to turn the music off on his phone, sipping his coffee. "I hope I didn't put you off them, but you should definitely listen to them." Mr Way said, smiling at Frank as he moved to stand up, turning on his projector. Frank stood up too, reluctant to leave now but he had a class and it seemed like Mr Way did too.  

"You didn't. I'll definitely look them up tonight." Frank said, smiling a little as he put his rubbish in the bin and slung his bag over his shoulder. He walked to the door, followed by his teacher who leant against the door frame to see him out.  

"Good. You can tell me if you like them tomorrow when I see you." Mr Way hummed a little, slipping his hands into his pockets as he smiled down at Frank, leaning back against the door.  

"I will." Frank nodded, really not wanting to leave. He had to though and he sighed softly as he stepped out of the classroom, giving Mr Way a little wave. "I'll see you tomorrow, Sir and thanks again for the sandwich."  

"Anytime, Frank." His teacher repeated, watching him go and glancing down the hall to see if any of the students from his next class were arriving. Frank had to fight not to look back at him as he walked away down the hall, hurrying to his next class. The whole time thinking about how Mr Way had been nice enough to go off school site just to buy him lunch. He admired Mr Way a lot for that since most of their teachers were just in it for the money or had just fallen into a hob they hated. It was easy to tell when they were; those types of teachers just droned on during the class, not actually bothering to see if the students actually understood it and yet those teachers were usually the ones that had a go at students for failing. Frank could tell that Mr Way actually liked his job though, or liked the students at least, which was nice, it made a change to have a teacher that actually went out of their way for the kids like that.  

Frank thought about it all through his next few classes, keeping his head down and keeping quiet through them as he went over what had happened in Mr Way's room. He couldn't help smiling a little to himself every time he thought about how his teacher had just burst out singing like that, it had been the highlight of his day and Frank was actually really looking forward to staying behind the next day, which was probably weird and sad but Frank didn't care.  


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slight TW for homophobic language and bullying in this chapter. Also really sorry it took so long, I almost broke my thumb and broke my laptop so I couldn't actually write it haha but I'm back to writing now so I hope you guys like it.

Frank hadn't actually managed to get a lot of his work done the night before, having flopped down onto his bed as soon as he had gotten into his room and fallen asleep. Frank hadn't even meant to nap at all so it was a little bit of a shock to him when he woke up at 8pm later that evening. He'd coughed as he sat up and checked the time, tempted to just roll back over and go back to sleep but then he'd remembered how enthusiastic Mr Way had been that lunch time and remembered that that piece of work he'd been set really needed to be done. Of course, it helped that his belly had rumbled as soon as he'd sat up in bed, giving him that extra bit of motivation he needed to drag himself out of bed and down the stairs.   
  
His mom had already left for the night shift when he got down stairs, which made Frank feel a little bad when he realised that he must have slept through dinner. She'd left him a plate out though with a note next to it with instructions on how to heat it up and letting him know what time she would be home. Sighing to himself, Frank had put his dinner on to heat up before going to find his school bag from wherever he'd left it that afternoon. 

The work really wasn't actually that hard; all he had to do was read the piece of text and pick out what was wrong with it. Easy enough to get done while he ate, but Frank was tired and sick, so concentrating on actually getting it done well was a struggle. He ended up putting as minimal effort as he could into it and finishing it before he'd even finished he food. He'd packed his bag back up after he'd eaten, while the thought had occurred to him that he had more work that needed to be done, Frank didn't want to be up all night doing it so he'd packed up. Tired and coughing, he'd gone back up to bed, sleeping restlessly until morning.    


It was still a struggle to get out of bed the next day. Frank’s cough was still there and he still felt just as lethargic as he had done the day before, even if he was looking forward to staying behind with Mr Way that afternoon. Frank wasn't sure if he would be able to spend lunch with his teacher again that afternoon, he hoped so, but he didn’t want a repeat of having to have his teacher buy him food so Frank had made sure to make himself lunch that morning instead of showering. There was no way he'd have gotten up earlier so he'd had to sacrifice his morning shower, which really didn't bother him that much anyway since it was still cold. The heating was on but it didn't seem to make a difference in the bathroom, unless you were actually under the hot water, it was freezing. So Frank had made himself lunch after having breakfast instead, going about his morning routine as quietly as he could to avoid waking his mom. He really didn't want to go to school and was tempted to skip until his creative writing class but his mom would definitely notice if he stayed home and there was no where else to hang around until then. That was the trouble with his mom being on the night shift, it meant he definitely couldn't skip school and was forced to go to the place he hated most. He didn't have anywhere else to go though so with a sigh, once he was ready, Frank left the house and walked to school, shivering and coughing the whole way there.

* * *

 

By the time he'd got to school, Frank was a shivering mess, coughing into his hand as he may his way through the school gates. Luckily, he wasn't too late and had a couple minutes to spare before his first class. Long enough to get to his locker to put his things away before the bell rang, though Frank wasn't sure if he was actually gonna get to class on time since he had History first thing that morning, which, while it wasn't completely at the other end of the school, was quite a trek from his locker. Not to mention he'd have to push his way through the crowds of students trying to get to their classes or the ones that just seemed to loiter in the hallways. Frank didn't really care though since it was just history and if he could get away with it, he would definitely just take the opportunity to sleep at the back of the classroom but he knew he'd be noticed and he figured that, if he wasn't gonna be doing the work to catch up attached home, he might as well try to pay attention in class.

Frank didn’t take too long at his locker, making a quick stop to just swap out books he'd need for ones he didn't before he shut it and turned to head towards his history classroom, hoping to avoid the crowds as much as he could. He was still tired, worn out from his walk to school and still trying to warm up too, all he really wanted to do was sit down somewhere and put his head down. With his head in the clouds and so distracted by his own thoughts, it was no surprise when Frank walked into someone, knowing exactly who it was by the ‘fuck off, fag’ that followed. Frank sighed a little and rolled his eyes because of course he had to literally run into Chase that morning. Preparing himself for the verbal abuse that was sure to follow, Frank tried to steady himself from the impact of walking into him; he wasn't given long though before Chase shoved him aside, making him stumble and lose his footing. The rest of Chase’s posse sniggered and laughed as Frank fell over, making snide comments amongst themselves as the group stepped over him and left with another little ‘fuck off’ from Chase. 

With a sigh, Frank pushed himself up so he was sitting, scooting back and leaning against the wall, bringing his knees up to his chest. Not a lot of damage had been done really, he was probably gonna have a bruise on his hip and his hands hurt where he'd used them to try and break his fall but that was it. His pride had probably taken the biggest hit, something that Frank didn’t really have a lot left to begin with, he was embarrassed, much like the day before and even though they hadn't ripped into him verbally or tore him a new one like usual, Frank was still left with burning cheeks and on the verge of tears from embarrassment. Frank tried to tell himself that he was being pathetic, he'd fallen over and they'd called him a name, maybe laughed at him a little; in the grand scheme of things it wasn't the worst thing to ever happened to him and he was sure he'd get over it, they'd forget about it eventually but none of that really mattered because he was embarrassed right then and he knew he would be for the rest of the day since they were likely to bring it up whenever they say him. He thought that maybe he was so upset about it because his morning had been kinda crappy anyway, on top of feeling sick, sleep deprived and having a crappy morning the day before, it was all a little bit too much. He stayed there for a good 5 minutes before the bell rang and reminded him that he actually had a place to be, unfortunately Frank couldn't just stay there in the hallway all day. So he hurried to stand up before the crowds trampled him, grabbing his bag and hurrying to push his way through the crowds of people. 

It didn't matter that he'd tried to get there on time, Frank was still late. Only by like 3 minutes but that didn’t seem to matter too much to his teacher who still gave him a detention as soon as he walked into the classroom. Taking the detention slip, Frank headed to his seat, the one furthest at the back in the corner, sitting down and dumping his bag on the desk before he checked to make sure his detention wasn't going to mean he'd miss put on his creative writing sessions after school. He was sure that if it did he could ask to do that instead of his detention but he doubted he'd be allowed, luckily though, his detention was scheduled for the next Monday, which meant that he wouldn't have an afternoon to himself next week but he'd just have to sucked it up he guessed. 

The class was a drag, like pretty much all of his classes, especially the ones he had that morning. History followed by Maths in which he got shit for not doing his catch up work, followed by Science and finally Creative Writing. The only class he’d actually been looking forward to that morning. Not just because Mr Way was friendly but Frank was actually looking forward to getting caught up to the interesting bits of the class. So Frank was quick to pack up his things when the bell rang, hurrying to leave his Science class and hurrying down the halls. He made it to class on time this time, glancing over to the front of the classroom as soon as he stepped inside to see Mr Way, as well dressed as the day before, writing something on the whiteboard. It looked like he was humming something to himself and Frank smiled a little at that as he headed to his seat, remembering how Mr Way had just started singing during lunch the day before. Frank hadn’t actually managed to listen to the band that Mr Way had recommended to him and he sighed a little when he remembered that, sitting down in his seat and setting his bag down on the one next to him, exactly like the day before. He was kinda disappointed in himself for forgetting, though he had done the actual work which he figured would be more important, but still, he didn’t want Mr Way to think that Frank hadn’t listened to them on purpose, or be disappointed too. That was unlikely but still, Frank worried and let his head rest down on the desk while he waited for the lesson to actually start. 

He hadn’t meant to zone out or fall asleep but he must have done because the next thing he knew, his bag was being moved onto the desk next to his head and someone was pulling out the chair next to him. The disappointed grunt he let out then was meant to deter whoever was trying to sit next to him but it didn’t work and Frank heard whoever it was sit down, sighing a little to himself as he lifted his head up and opened his eyes. His eyes went wide when he saw Mr Way sitting there with an amused expression on his face, elbows resting on the desk. 

“You weren’t asleep, were you Frank?” His teacher asked with a light chuckle, knowing full well Frank had been. “Because I might have to give you another detention if you were.” 

Frank’s apology died on his lips then as he gave his teacher a confused look, “Wait, another?” He asked, raising an eyebrow slightly. 

“Oh yeah, you’re on my detention list for Monday.” Mr Way explained with a shrug. Frank couldn’t believe his teacher was being so laid back, both about him falling asleep and having detention. 

“Oh yeah…” Frank mumbled, nodding a little and biting his lip a little, looking over at his teacher awkwardly. 

“So, lateness, huh?” Mr Way asked with a raised eyebrow, “Same reason you were late to my class yesterday?” 

Frank wasn’t sure why he was getting questioned about it but he figured that was why Mr Way had come over. He shook his head a little, “No, I fell.” He answered with a slight blush, shrugging one shoulder. 

“Oh! Well I hope you didn’t hurt yourself too badly.” Mr Way said then, giving him a sympathetic look and shaking his head a little. “Anyway, did you do the work I set you yesterday?” He asked, leaning against the desk as he looked over at Frank. 

“Oh, yeah. Here.” He said, reaching into his bag for the only piece of work he actually had managed to do the night before, handing it over to his teacher. Frank had been expecting Mr Way to just leave him to it again and take it up to his desk to mark later but no, his teacher just pulled a pen out of his suit pocket and started reading through it then. Frank hated it when teachers marked his work in front of him, he didn’t know why, especially when he knew he hadn’t put a lot of effort into it like with what Mr Way was reading through right then. It was just kind of embarrassing, being able to see his teachers reactions to his work right there in front of him. So he looked away, staring up at the clock while he waited for Mr Way to finish. 

He could tell, when his teacher cleared his throat and Frank looked back at him, that he wasn’t best pleased with what Frank had done. Normally, Frank wouldn’t have cared and he didn’t know whether it was because he actually wanted to do well at this class itself or whether it was because Mr Way had been so lenient and nice to him but Frank actually felt guilty about that. 

“Now, Frank, I know I haven’t taught you very long at all and this is the first piece of work you’ve done for me but I can tell you didn’t put a lot of effort into this.” Mr Way said, gesturing down at the sheet of paper on the desk in front of him. 

Frank nodded a little and bit his lip, “Yeah, I know, Sir. I’m sorry.” He murmured, looking down at his work and almost sighing too when he saw how many corrections Mr Way had marked down. “I was half asleep last night, still pretty sick.” He explained, glancing back up at his teacher. Another little sympathetic look flashed across Mr Way’s face before he seemed to go back into teacher mode. 

“I know you were sick, Frank but this is important to get you catched up.” He said, “I’m not going to lecture you, just please try to put more effort into the rest of the class. This isn’t an easy A.” 

Frank hated that Mr Way thought that was the reason he’d taken the class and shook his head a little. “I know, Sir. That’s not why...I like writing and stuff so I’ll try harder next time. It’s just that I really wasn’t feeling up to it last night.” 

Mr Way nodded a little then, “Okay, well, then maybe we should cancel one of our after school sessions to give you a chance to get better properly.” He suggested. 

“Oh, no it’s okay. It’ll be easier to catch up here instead of at home and it’ll take longer if we cancel.” Frank said, shaking his head a little. He knew that if he was left to do it at home himself that he probably wouldn't get it done. 

“Alright then. Take next Friday off anyway and we can get some work done on Monday during your detention instead.” Mr Way said before sliding the piece of paper over the table, setting it between them and reaching for his pen. “We just need to go through this then. And I'll set you another task to start this lesson. Hopefully we'll be able to get that finished this afternoon but if not we'll just carry it on tomorrow.” 

Frank nodded a little, shuffling a little closer so that he could see his piece of work, resting his elbows on the table, waiting for Mr Way to carry on. When his teacher did carry on speaking, he went through the paper with him, pointing out all the bits he'd missed, correcting bits he'd gotten wrong and explaining all the bits he'd gotten right (by accident  Frank had literally just gone over it at random the night before, hoping for the best). Frank tried his best to pay attention, even though he zoned out occasionally when his gaze got caught on the way Mr Way’s hand moved across the page. He figured his tiredness was making it hard to concentrate and since looking at the way his teacher's hands moved kept almost sending him to sleep, Frank had to glance up at Mr Way just to stop himself falling asleep on him again. He managed to take in most of it though, nodding along whenever he was expected to show that he understood. He wasn't actually lying either, it wasn't really too hard to understand in the first place, just a lack of effort on his part but with Mr Way sat there explaining things through, it didn't actually seem like it would have been too hard. Mr Way was even making little notes for him on the paper with the things he'd missed, only little ones, prompts more like and Frank knew he was going to have to go over it as soon as Mr Way left to expand on other just so he could remember what he'd said.

“Okay, so you've got all that, right?” Mr Way asked when he was done, glancing up at Frank with a little smile and raising an eyebrow slightly. He slid the paper further towards Frank so the teen could get a better look at it. After only a quick glance down at his page, Frank nodded a little and looked back up at his teacher. 

“Yeah, I've got it.” Frank nodded, smiling a little back at him as he quickly reached for his pen to start expanding on what his teacher had written before he could forget. Mr Way moved to stand up then. 

“I’m just going to get the next thing for you to work on.” He explained, not bothering to tuck the chair back in as he turned to walk back up to his desk. 

Frank sighed to himself as he glanced back down at his page and quickly scribbled down the last of what he could remember Mr Way saying, setting it aside as he leant back in his seat and waited for his teacher to get back, glancing over at the clock. He was pretty glad that it was lunch next, even though he had no idea if he was going to be able to stay in the classroom again like the day before or whether it would be sad of him to try; it wasn’t that he was trying to suck up to Mr Way, Frank would probably ask if he could stay in the classroom even if Mr Way wasn’t going to be there. No, Frank just didn’t want to have to spend lunch by himself in the cafeteria and going outside wasn’t an option. He couldn’t decide which would seem sadder; spending lunch by himself in the crowded cafe or spending lunch by himself in the peace and quiet of the classroom. He didn’t have long to worry about it before Mr Way was sitting back down in the chair next to him, setting a couple sheets of paper down on the desk and getting himself settled again. Frank glanced back at him, really hoping that all of those sheets of paper weren’t the work he needed to do. 

“Okay, sorry, for a moment there I thought I’d forgot to print it out for you this morning.” Mr Way chuckled, fixing his tie and sorting the sheets out into some kind of order. Stopping himself from making a comment about how that would have been more than okay, Frank just gave him a reassuring smile, shrugging one shoulder. 

“It’s alright.” He murmured, looking curiously over at the papers in front of his teacher. 

“Okay, so this probably looks like quite a lot and it kind of is, which is why I had to give you that mini lecture on effort.” Mr Way said. With most other teachers that would have come out as a snide dig or a sarcastic comment but when Frank glanced up at him, Mr Way just seemed amused. “With this-” Mr Way said, holding up the first sheet, which, Frank realised was double sided. “It’s basically the same as what you did for me yesterday, just slightly more difficult, just to make sure you understand.” 

He slid it over to Frank then and Frank groaned internally, really hoping that Mr Way wasn’t going to expect all this done in one night. It had been struggle enough getting the small paragraph done and Frank was pretty sure that he was gonna fall asleep before he could even finish the first side of this longer piece. He glanced back up at his teacher though and waited for him to carry on explaining the rest of it. 

The next sheet of paper was pretty empty, luckily. “This is just a list of the prompts I gave to the class, after you’ve finished reading through that sheet, you need to pick one of these and use what you’ve learnt from the first two exercises to write something.” Mr Way explained, sliding the second sheet across to him. “Now, there’s not really a word count for whatever you write but make sure you give me enough that I can mark it.” 

Frank sighed a little, half pleased that he was finally get to write something but the other half of him was just dreading having to do any sort of work at all. He coughed quietly as he took the sheet and glanced over the list of prompts, hoping that at least one of them would stand out to him. “Okay, I can do that.” He nodded, glancing back up at Mr Way after he’d sorted the sheets back into the same order. “Is this to be done for tomorrow?” 

He really hoped it wouldn’t be and almost sighed with relief when Mr Way shook his head, “No, I’m just giving it all to you now so you can get started on it.” He said, giving him a small smile. “Just so that you can start writing or planning what you’re going to write later since we’ll probably get that first sheet finished in our session later.” He explained, with a slight shrug, “You might end up getting it finished tomorrow anyway though since I’ll be giving you the class time to work on it but if not, then you’ll have the after school session too.” 

Frank didn’t think it would take him quite that long, unless of course he couldn’t think of anything to write then it would take him longer but he was hoping it wouldn’t. He gave his teacher a small smile then, nodding a little, “Okay, thank you.” He said, glancing down at the two sheets in front of him and then back at the one in front of Mr Way. “What’s that one for?” He asked curiously. 

“Oh this is just like an answer sheet or a check sheet for the first one. I can give it to you now if you promise not to cheat.” Mr Way chuckled jokingly, smiling as he slid the sheet over to Frank. Mr Way’s smile was infectious and even though he’d had a shitty morning, Frank smiled back at him, bringing a hand up to tuck his hair behind his ear as he looked back down at the desk. Frank was sure that he didn’t deserve Mr Way’s kindness but it made him smile anyway. 

“I promise.” He murmured as he slipped that sheet at the bottom of the pile, reaching for his pen. Nothing happened for a moment or so, making Frank feel a bit awkward as he sat there looking down at the sheet in front of him and pretending to read while Mr Way still sat next to him; he felt just as awkward doing work in front of his teacher as he did having his work marked right in front of him. Mr Way didn’t stay for long though and he stood up after a moment, tucking the chair back in. 

“I’ll leave you to get on with that now. Call me over if you need any help.” He said with a friendly smile on his face, “Oh, and don’t fall asleep again.” He joked, chuckling to himself as he turned to leave then and walked around the classroom to check on how the other students were getting on. Blushing a little at his joking, Frank watched him for a moment, in awe at how relaxed and laidback Mr Way was. He admired him a lot for that and he could tell that pretty much all the other students respected him and liked him too; Frank was sure that it was not an easy task to earn the respect from a rowdy group of teenagers as a teacher but Mr Way just had this charm about him, he was so likeable and laid back but didn’t take any shit either. Frank smiled to himself as he watched Mr Way for a moment before he looked back at his worksheet, sighing a little and getting to work. 

* * *

Frank didn’t actually have enough time to do anything other than read the piece over that lesson where he and Mr Way had spent a little while chatting and Frank still kept getting distracted. He didn’t mean to but he was still tired and kept coughing quietly to himself occasionally, doodling in the margins of the paper every time he found himself getting bored. It made him feel guilty but he really couldn’t help it and he figured that at least he’d managed to finish reading the thing by the time the bell rang so it wasn’t as though he had sat there doing nothing the entire time.

When the bell actually did ring, the class hurried to pack up and started to file out. A couple of them, like the day before went up to Mr Way’s desk to talk to him once they were all packed up but they didn’t stay very long. Frank still wasn’t sure if he was going to be allowed to stay in the classroom again like last time so he hesitated with his packing up and hung back, waiting for Mr Way to say something, figuring that if his teacher didn’t then he would just leave and find somewhere else to sit. 

Luckily, Mr Way glanced over at him, giving a lopsided smile once they were the only two left in the classroom. “You’ll be joining me for lunch again then, Frank?” He asked, going around the classroom to pick up little bits of rubbish that his students had left, kicking the doorstop under the door to keep it open again. 

“Um...if that’s okay.” Frank murmured shyly, still feeling a little awkward around his teacher, still a little shy. He didn’t want to intrude; he was sure that Mr Way would appreciate eating in peace without Frank hanging around so even if he did want to stay, he was still going to be polite and give Mr Way the opportunity to kick him out if he wanted to. 

“Of course. I’m going to get some coffee but you can stay in here if you like.” Mr Way offered, standing in the doorway as he looked over at Frank, “Do you need to go get your lunch?” He asked. 

Frank shook his head a little, smiling gratefully over at him, “No, I bought some with me today. The vegetarian stuff here isn’t that great.” He chuckled shyly, shrugging a little and staying in his seat.   
  
Mr Way laughed along with him and nodded a little, “Fair enough. I’ll be back soon, don’t trash my classroom, Iero.” He laughed as he turned to leave, leaving Frank alone in the empty classroom, smiling a little to himself. 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slight TW for bullying in this chapter. Also so sorry it took so long to get it updated, this chapter carries on straight from Chapter 4 so you might need to go reread that chapter to get caught up with it. 
> 
> Also big thanks to Charlotte (@ keepthefrank on tumblr) for editing this chapter for me and helping to write some parts of it!!

Mr Way had obviously meant the comment as a joke and yet it still made Frank a little nervous once his teacher had left. He didn’t want a different teacher to come by and assume he was doing just what Mr Way had joked about. There was his work he could be getting on with while he waited but Mr Way had said he wouldn’t be long and that would have just been a bit too nerdy for Frank.   
He could have eaten his lunch too but if he finished before Mr Way came back then that would leave him with no excuse to stay, and Frank really wanted an excuse to sit and talk with with Mr Way again like he had done the day before. So Frank got up from his seat he usually sat in during class and moved up to the front seat he had used the day before and sat there, waiting for Mr Way to come back, glancing over at the open door and then up at the clock every few seconds.  

The classroom seemed pretty empty without Mr Way in it even though his possessions were strewn across his desk amongst empty coffee cups from the cafeteria and piles of students work. Frank couldn’t tell what was rubbish and what wasn’t. He had more opportunity to be nosy now that he was left alone in the classroom and getting a better look, Frank could see some drawings that must have been done by a couple of his art students stuck to the wall behind the desk. He leant closer to get a better look at them, smiling when he saw most of them were actually addressed to Mr Way, one even a cartoonish picture of the man himself. It was pretty sweet of him to keep it up like that, Frank thought as he looked them over, startled out of his thoughts a moment later by Mr Way’s voice from behind him. 

 “What’s caught your attention then?” 

Frank hadn’t noticed him coming back at all so it made him jump a little and he looked over at him with a sheepish apologetic smile as he sat back down in his seat properly. 

“Just the drawings, sorry.” Frank figured he should apologise for being nosy as he watched Mr Way step back into the classroom carrying another coffee cup and a container of food with him. The older man simply shrugged as he sat back at his desk and looked over at Frank. 

“No need to apologise.” He said, opening up his lunch, the action reminding Frank that he still hadn’t gotten his own lunch out of his bag and he moved to do so while he waited for Mr Way to carry on. “Some of the younger kids like to draw me stuff sometimes, it’s pretty nice.” His teacher explained, smiling to himself as he twisted around to look at them, fixing a couple that had started to fall off. He turned back to look at Frank, who had sat back up properly and started on his sandwich by then, smiling a little as he went back to his lunch. 

“They’re pretty good.” Frank murmured shyly, smiling slightly back at him and looking down at the desk as he started to eat his sandwich. He wasn’t sure what else to say to him and he still felt a little awkward. Frank had been kinda looking forward to lunch time ever since he’d left the classroom the day before but now that he was here he was reminded that Mr Way was his teacher and probably had no interest in making friends with a student, he was probably just letting Frank sit there to be polite. And so Frank had no idea what to say. It was a little disheartening but the two weren’t eating in awkward silence for long before Mr Way piped up again, reaching for his phone. 

“I suppose it’s your turn to pick the music today.” He said as he played around with his phone for a bit before handing it out for Frank to take. Frank couldn’t help being a little surprised that Mr Way was gonna even let him touch his phone let alone trust him enough to take it. He hesitated for a moment before he reached out for it, about to take it when Mr Way stopped him, pulling it back a little just out of Frank’s reach as he looked over at Frank with a raised eyebrow. 

Frank wasn’t sure what he had done wrong and afraid that he was in trouble, he took his hand back, looking over at his teacher nervously. He’d been the punchline to more than a few cruel jokes just like this at the hands of his peers and even though it was silly to think a teacher would do the same thing, Frank couldn’t help being extremely anxious. “Wait a minute.” Mr Way started, making Frank even more nervous before he finished, “Did you listen to the band I showed you yesterday?” 

Frank let out a little sigh of relief then, glad it wasn’t anything like he had thought, his nerves starting up all over again only a moment later though when he remembered that no, he hadn’t. 

“No...sorry.” He murmured with another apologetic look as he shook his head, looking back at his teacher and going back to his sandwich. 

“You say sorry a lot, huh?” Mr Way said, almost playfully as he watched Frank for a moment and shook his head, “No need to, it wasn’t an assignment or anything Frank. I was just going to suggest that we could listen to them now instead. Unless you want to pick…?”  

Frank shook his head quickly and leant back in his seat as he looked over at him, picking at his sandwich, “No, it’s okay, that’s a good idea, we can listen to them.” He said, embarrassed that Mr Way had pointed out how often he tended to say sorry for things, biting his lip a little.  

His teacher didn’t seem completely convinced either and he raised an eyebrow slightly as he asked, “Are you sure?” giving in and nodding when Frank just nodded again in response. “Okay well you can choose the music later after school then.” He said as he put on the same song they had listened to the day before. 

Frank had forgotten that he still needed to stay after school and he held back a soft sigh when he remembered. Sure, Mr Way was cool and all and getting to stay behind and listen to music with him while they worked was much better than any other time Frank had needed to stay behind to do work but they would still be working which was not so cool. He’d much rather be home in bed. Still, he didn’t want to be rude and make his frustration obvious in front of Mr Way so he tried to keep it hidden as he nodded a little, still eating his sandwich.  

It seemed like he wasn’t as good at hiding it as he thought he was; Mr Way could tell straight away but he just chuckled a little and smiled over at him, “I know, staying after school sucks and you’ve probably got much better things to be doing but it’s necessary I’m afraid.” Mr Way laughed, sipping his coffee slowly as he looked over at Frank, "But I'll try to make it as fun as I can, promise," he smirked over the lid of his coffee and added, "don't want you falling asleep on me again." 

Frank shook his head a little, feeling kinda bad about it all but he fought the urge to apologise again, “No, it’s okay, I’m just a bit tired.” He murmured, giving his teacher a small smile before he went back to eating his sandwich. 

A worried look passed over Mr Way’s face then but Frank barely caught it, looking down at his desk instead and trying to avoid looking at his teacher directly. It was weird but Frank didn’t like knowing that people were worried about him. It might have been because he didn’t really think there was anything for them to be worried about and he hated to needlessly upset people, especially people he barely knew. But with Mr Way it was even worse; the older man was cool, he was nice and he had to be talented to be the creative writing teacher and the art teacher, not to mention the students loved him. Frank may not have known him very long but he looked up to him already. He knew that it was unlikely they would ever be considered ‘friends’ seeing as Mr Way was his teacher and all but that didn’t stop Frank from wanting to be closer to him. He wasn’t even sure exactly what that meant for him yet and it was confusing but Frank knew he didn’t want Mr Way to be talking to him at lunch or letting him sit in his room just because he felt sorry for him. Frank wanted Mr Way to _like_ him not just _tolerate_ him and be polite because he felt like he had to. 

Frank let those thoughts go when Mr Way started talking again, “If you’re sure, Frank, but if you’re still feeling ill or down we can cut down how long you spend here in the afternoons.” He offered. “And my room is always open if you need to talk.” Frank was sure the offer was supposed to be nice and well meaning, and he appreciated it he really did, it wasn’t that he was ungrateful. It was just a little embarrassing. It was so teachery and cliche and Frank didn’t like that much. 

“No, no, Mr Way, I’m fine really.” Frank insisted, shaking his head a little as he looked over at him. He didn’t want Mr Way to assume he was upset over nothing, or for him to assume something was going on at home when there definitely wasn’t. Frank didn’t even think he as down, he was just tired where he was getting over a cold and that was it, he didn’t want Mr Way assuming it was more and feeling sorry for him. “I really am just tired.” He finished softly, biting his lip a little.   

It didn’t look like Mr Way believed him at first, but the elder didn’t push it and nodded a little, sipping the coffee he’d bought himself and watching as Frank picked at the last of his sandwich. It seemed a little awkward now as they sat in silence listening to the music Mr Way had put on and though Frank hated the awkward silence, the music made it a little easier to deal with. In fact, he was pretty sure the awkwardness was all on him - when he dared to glance up again at Mr Way, he saw that the teacher was bobbing his head along to the music, coffee in one hand and an abused paperback in the other. As if he could feel Frank’s eyes on him, Mr Way lowered the book and caught Frank’s eye. “Like what you see, Iero?”

Frank spluttered a little, too stunned to find his voice for a moment. Mr Way laughed at this - sincerely, a high pitched giggle that shocked Frank further and quipped, “Only teasing, never mind me. How’s your lunch?” 

“It’s...fine I guess.” Frank mumbled, shrugging a little and glancing down at his mostly finished sandwich, pushing it away from himself. He wasn’t that hungry anymore, not that he had been very hungry in the first place but all the anxiousness Mr Way had caused, whether intentional or not, had made him lose his appetite. Frank wasn’t sure if it was just because he’d had a bad morning but for some reason he was a little more on edge than usual. “Just a sandwich.” He shrugged, looking back over at Mr Way who sat there with the amused look still on his face. 

“At least you actually brought something with you today.” He laughed, taking another sip of his coffee as he saved the page in his book and put it down properly, leaning back in his chair, “I was half worried I’d have to go out and buy you something again.” 

It was just a joke. Frank had to remind himself that it was just a harmless joke, just like all the other harmless jokes Mr Way had told, granted they’d almost all been at Frank’s expense, even the day before. Mr Way just seemed like that kind of person, he probably did the same thing with all of the students he was friendly with but this joke in particular grated on Frank. He hadn’t asked Mr Way to buy him lunch before, in fact he’d specifically asked him not to, and yet his teacher had done so anyway. ‘No problem’ he’d said, ‘anytime’ he’d said and yet here he was making teasing remarks to Frank as if that had been some kind of chore. It made Frank feel even guiltier than he had already. Still, Frank forced himself to chuckle and nod along with his teacher’s joke, trying to hide that had made him uncomfortable. He was sure he was just being sensitive where he’d had a shitty morning, surely his _teacher_ wasn’t teasing him to be cruel, just playful and Frank was surely taking it the wrong way.   

“No, not this time, Sir.” Frank chuckled lightly, trying his best to hide the slight edge in his voice and how forced his laugh seemed, luckily Mr Way didn’t seem to notice this time since he’d gone back to his book by then. He didn’t seem as talkative this time, which was a slight disappointment, but then again, they hadn’t had a lot of time to talk much the day before either. Mr Way wasn’t acting any different than he had the day before, he was still just as laid back and playful with his little jokes and almost constant smiling, he was even singing along to the music under his breath too, not as exaggerated as the day before but more like muttering the words to the song as if he couldn’t quite help himself, or even noticed he was doing it. Frank just felt different. He was having a bad day he supposed, he’d spent the morning tired and cold and miserable, not to mention his side was still hurting where he’d been shoved over that morning. It was no surprise that he was irritable then. And the more he thought about it, Frank didn’t much feel like talking much either, so instead he crossed his arms on the desk and rested his head on them when he was done with his lunch, just sitting there and listening to the music Mr Way had put on for them. 

Mr Way didn’t seem to mind that Frank was staying there even if he was finished his lunch; he didn’t seem to be paying much attention at all. He’d finished his coffee and had moved on to focusing properly on the book, scribbling down a couple notes in the margins of the pages with a pencil as he read, muttering along to the music. He wasn’t looking at Frank at all. Still, Frank did his best not to look over at him too much; after Mr Way’s teasing comment before, he didn’t want to embarrass himself by getting caught staring at him again. The music wasn’t what Frank was used to listening to though, he still liked it but it was starting to put him to sleep after a while of laying there with his head on the desk and Frank really didn’t want to fall asleep  _ again.  _ So he lifted his head up just enough to look over at his teacher, just in time to catch him writing notes in the paperback he was reading from. “Isn’t that bad?” Frank asked before he could stop himself, looking over at Mr Way curiously. 

Mr Way just looked up at him with a raised eyebrow, a little confused and waiting for Frank to elaborate.  

“Writing. In the book, I mean, isn’t that like...bad?” Frank explained himself, pushing himself up to sit up properly again now as he pointed over to the book Mr Way was writing in. 

“Oh!” Mr Way chuckled, shaking his head a little. “No, I’m an English teacher after all, most English teachers do. I like to write down my thoughts on it, just little notes. And it’s in pencil anyway, so it’s not like it’s gonna ruin the book.” He explained, smiling over at Frank a little. 

“But most kids get told not to write in their books.” Frank pointed out. 

“That’s because most kids just graffiti in them.” Mr Way shrugged, “You wouldn’t guess the amount of times I’ve had students drawing dicks or writing silly messages in the school books.” He seemed genuinely annoyed by that, which made a lot of sense, Frank had to admit it was annoying when he got a textbook that had random shit drawn all over it, let alone actual novels. He nodded a little to show Mr Way he understood his point, going quiet about it then, but Mr Way carried on. “Besides, if you borrow someone’s book and they’ve written notes, it’s nice to see what they thought about it sometimes. You should try it sometime.” 

 Frank thought about that for a moment and nodded, he could see how that would make it more fun to share books with people. “I don’t know anyone else who writes in their books.” He shrugged, resting his head back on his arms on the desk as he looked over at him, half expecting Mr Way to let him borrow one of his, he seemed like that kinda guy.

“Shame.” Was all Mr Way said, with a shrug, “It’s always pretty interesting to do that.” That was more than a little disappointing for Frank and he sighed a little, trying not to be too disappointed because he really didn’t have enough time or energy to be reading for fun right then so maybe it was a good thing Mr Way hadn’t offered but still, Frank couldn’t help feeling a little bitter over it. He stayed quiet then, just nodding a little, in too bad of a mood to hide it. It wasn’t quiet for long before Mr Way went to speak again, Frank was expecting him to ask him if anything was wrong again but he didn’t, instead all he said was ‘lunch is almost over’, setting his book down again. Frank glanced up at the clock then and sure enough there was only a couple minutes left before the bell was due to ring for the end of lunch; he was sure that was Mr Way’s way of hinting at him to leave, taking the hint and standing up to throw his rubbish from his sandwich in the bin.  

“I should get going so I’m not late to class then?” Frank said though it came out as more of a question, wanting to be sure that was what Mr Way had meant. He’d been allowed to stay until the end of lunch the day before so he was kinda hoping it wasn’t but Mr Way nodded and stood up himself. 

“I have to get the classroom ready for my next class.” His teacher said with a sigh, running his fingers through his hair as he looked over at the desk. It looked like he was trying to rearrange them in his head which was slightly confusing. 

“The classroom ready?” Frank asked curiously, grabbing his bag once he was done getting rid of the last of his sandwich and glancing up at Mr Way. 

“Yeah, my 9th graders are doing plays this term so I thought it’d help them to perform one of them but I gotta move all the desks before they get here.” Mr Way explained, starting to move each of the chairs off to the side so he could move the desks.  

“Oh, I can help if you like?” Frank offered, feeling a little bad for staying right up until the end of lunch if Mr Way had needed to get things done, the least he could do was help him get it done quicker. 

“Are you sure?” Mr Way asked, looking back at Frank and nodding a little as he made sure all the chairs were out of the way. “I just need the desks moved to the side of the room and the chairs in front of them facing the middle.” He told Frank, moving one of the desks to push it up against the wall and setting the chairs back in front of it, facing the middle of the room to show Frank how he wanted them though Frank already knew what he meant and had already dropped his bag by Mr Way’s desk to get started on helping him. 

“I can do it. Sorry for taking up your lunch.” He said, dragging one of the desks to the opposite wall and arranging the chairs how Mr Way wanted them while his teacher worked on the other side of the room. 

“No need to apologise, Frank. It’s nice to have company during lunch for a change.” Mr Way smiled over at him, shaking his head a little. Mr Way hadn’t exactly specified that it was nice to have _Frank’s_ company but still, that made him smile and blush a little. He wasn’t sure why, he didn’t know why it mattered to him so much to have Mr Way’s approval but still, it did, and the comment made up for whatever teasing had gone on during lunch. “Thanks for helping with the desks, I don’t want to make you late to your next class.”  

“It’s no problem, Sir. I just gotta stop to my locker, I shouldn’t be late.” Frank said softly, still smiling to himself over his teacher’s comment, biting his lip a little. It was as if that little comment had proved to him that Mr Way wasn’t actually an asshole like his teasing would have suggested, maybe Frank had just been sensitive before. 

It didn’t take long before they managed to get the desks moved to how Mr Way wanted them, both working on their separate sides of the room until they reached the far wall in the middle and Mr Way insisted on getting the rest of it done himself when the bell rang. There was only a couple tables left so Frank didn’t argue and nodded a little as he went to go get his bag from the front of the room, smiling over at his teacher when he got to the door.  

“I’ll see you later, Mr Way.” He said from the doorway, watching as Mr Way looked over at him and nodded. 

“Sure thing, Frank. I’ll see you this afternoon.” He said, waving to him a little before reaching for the last chair and setting it down, “No go before you’re late to class, you don’t wanna get another detention for tardiness.” He chuckled playfully.  

* * *

 

He only had to sit through two more lessons in between lunch and the end of the day, two incredibly boring ones, managing not to be late for either of them. That didn’t mean he didn’t get in trouble for not doing the catch up work he had been set, getting another detention for his last class of the day. Unfortunately, his detention would be on the next Tuesday instead of just adding an extra hour to his Monday detention, which meant he was probably gonna be in double the amount of trouble since he would be missing a catch up session with Mr Way that day too. Frank sighed to himself when he realised that, setting his head down on his desk instead of getting on with his work for the rest of that class, probably not the best thing to do since he would just end up having to catch up with even more but he was too tired and miserable to concentrate on anything that afternoon.  

He supposed it was his own fault for not having done anything the night before, but Frank couldn’t help that he had fallen asleep. The terrible day he’d had wasn’t really helping to bring up his motivation either. And really his day had been beyond shitty, the only highlight had been his lunch with Mr Way and even that hadn’t been as great as the day before. All Frank wanted to do was go home and curl up on his bed, but he couldn’t. Class was almost over but he still had an hour to spend after school (which he was hoping wouldn’t be too depressing) and even when he got home, Frank couldn’t afford to slack off either. Instead, he spent his last class slacking off though he couldn’t let himself fall asleep again. His teacher didn’t seem to notice or care very much that Frank spent the entire class with his head down on the desk, not even picking up his pen at all. The only time he lifted his head up was when the bell rang and he had to pick himself up to head to Mr Way’s classroom again. Even then, Frank didn’t really bother to hurry himself. He was the last one out of class despite being the only one who didn’t really have to pick up his things since he hadn’t gotten any of it out. He had left his English things in his locker and had to make his way there to switch them out so he headed straight to his locker when he stepped out of class. 

He wasn’t hurrying but he didn’t want to be too late so he tried not to take too long at his locker, quickly putting away his things from his last two classes and grabbing out the work that Mr Way had given him earlier. It was all he was gonna need so he didn’t bother with anything else, not wanting to take too long at his locker, especially since his new locker was so far away from the classroom. He shut up his locker when he was done grabbing everything out, turning to make his way to Mr Way’s room, hoping that he hadn’t left his teacher waiting too long. 

It was looking like Frank was actually gonna make it on time as he neared the hallway before his classroom, near the front of the school. There were still quite a lot of students milling around where it was only 5 minutes after the bell had gone, most of them gathered in groups around their lockers chatting, some making their way towards the doors. Frank wasn’t really paying much attention to any of them though, just trying to push his way through the small crowds so he could get to the set of doors that lead to the familiar hallway Mr Way’s classroom was in. He was just about to turn the corner when he tripped over something. Or less of a some _ thing _ and more like some _ one _ , someone’s foot to be precise. It didn’t take a genius to work out who had tripped him over for the second time that day. Except Frank hadn’t been expecting it this time and hadn’t been able to break his fall like earlier that morning. He hit the ground pretty hard, hard enough  to make an audible thud as his body hit the floor . 

A couple people walking past sniggered at him, a couple students looked worried but didn’t do or say anything, just gave him concerned looks as they walked past. Chase’s group had immediately started laughing and taunting him, making terrible unfunny jokes about how clumsy ‘faggot Frank’ was and laughing amongst themselves, Chase being the loudest among the lot of them as usual. Frank could barely hear them at first, the shock of falling over and hitting the floor so hard and suddenly had done a pretty good job of disorientating him and the first thing he did was lift a hand up to check he hadn’t hit his head too badly. He hadn’t hit it all, luckily, and once that worry subsided then the insults being thrown at him caught his attention. Frank tried not to pay much more attention to those though, sighing to himself as he pushed himself up off the floor a little bit. His side was hurting a lot more now, just as he’d been starting to forget about the pain from that morning, suddenly this fall had made it a lot worse. Instead of just his hip, the pain was flaring all up his side and down his legs, mostly his knees.  

He stayed there for a moment, still on the floor though he wasn’t lying completely on the floor anymore, waiting until Chase and his gang were done insulting him and laughing at him, waiting until they’d walked off before he moved to get up properly. It was only when he tried to get up and glanced down the hallway that he noticed Mr Way standing outside his classroom at the very end of the hall. The teacher was leaning against the wall, arms crossed and looking over Frank. Frank wasn’t sure exactly how long Mr Way had been there or exactly how much he’d seen, he couldn’t even see his face properly from that distance but Chase and the others had only left seconds ago so it was unlikely that Mr Way hadn’t seen  _ anything _ . He must have seen something and yet he’d just stood there. 

Frank tried to convince himself there was a reasonable explanation as to why he hadn’t done anything. Maybe he was gonna talk to Frank about it when he got into class, maybe he was gonna tell him not to worry about staying behind after all and maybe he was gonna tell him that he would report what he’d seen in the morning. Frank even tried to convince himself that Mr Way thought the incident was an accident but that was extremely unlikely, Mr Way wasn’t stupid and it was fairly obvious with all the insults being thrown around that it hadn’t been an accident. Still, Frank didn’t want to let himself get too worked up over it until he heard what Mr Way had to say about it, still hoping that Mr Way was going to do _something._  

It was kind of awkward as the two stared at each other down the hallway for a moment; Mr Way leaning against his classroom door frame and Frank sat on the floor at the other end of the hall as he tried to collect himself enough to stand up without it hurting too badly. Frak was half expecting Mr Way to come over and offer to help him up, he seemed like the kind of nice guy that would do something like that but he didn’t. Instead, he just pushed himself off the door frame after a moment and turned to step back into his classroom. 

That stung a little more that it probably should have. Frank wasn’t sure what the fuck he had done wrong. Mr Way seemed like a nice guy, he seemed like a really friendly teacher. Even when Frank had fallen asleep in class, missed two weeks of lessons, put minimal effort into his first catch up task - Mr Way still hadn’t reprimanded him for any of that. In fact the whole time, he’d been nice, making jokes and playing around with Frank, he’d let Frank eat lunch with him, acted so concerned about Frank’s cold, he hadn’t even been mad when he found out Frank had detention. So why the fuck had he just ignored it when he saw Frank getting picked on? It kinda pissed Frank off that Mr Way had just stood there and watched and he was so tempted to just stand up and go home but he didn’t want to piss Mr Way off by ditching his catch up session, even if the guy was acting like an asshole all of a sudden. So Frank sighed to himself, standing up carefully and dusting himself off before limping down the hall to Mr Way’s classroom.  

Mr Way was sitting at his desk sipping another cup of coffee and flipping through some pages when Frank got there. He’d kicked a door stop over to hold the door open for Frank and as soon as he sensed that Frank was standing in the doorway, he gestured for him to close it, not even bothering to look up at him. “You can shut the door.” Was all he said, sorting out his papers and finally glancing up at Frank. He was acting as though he hadn’t seen anything even though Frank knew that he had and even if he hadn’t it was fairly obvious Frank was hurt. That pissed Frank off even more but still, he didn’t want to get in trouble for showing it, Mr Way was still a teacher after all so he just nodded and kicked the door stop out from under the door, letting it fall closed as he stepped into the room and over to the chair he’d sat at during lunch. He was tempted to sit a little way back from Mr Way, not really wanting to be so close to him right then but that would just be petty. It was awkward though as he sat down, getting the sheets of paper that Mr Way had given him during class out of his bag and setting them down on his desk in front of them while Mr Way finished his coffee and cleared up his desk a bit. Frank wasn’t sure if it was going to go how he thought it would now, with the two of them acting friendly and listening to music together as they worked. A part of him hoped it still would, even if he was annoyed at Mr Way for acting how he was.  

“Okay, how far did you get earlier during class?” Mr Way asked when he was done clearing up some of the papers on Frank’s desk and looking over at him. He seemed determined to act like nothing had happened, which was beyond confusing, Frank was sure that as soon as they were alone in the class he’d ask Frank about it and offer to help but he wasn’t doing anything.  

That alone was surprising enough for Frank to take a few minutes to answer, only forcing out an answer when Mr Way seemed to get impatient for one. “Just read through the text quickly. I didn’t get much time to start picking out things.” Frank murmured, biting his lip a little and shyly looking over at Mr Way. 

“That’s fine. I’ll leave you to do that without my help then and once you’re done we can go through the answers together, that should take up the hour and a half so you can get started with the writing task at home.” Mr Way told him, nodding a little and reaching for his phone again. Frank watched as he opened up the music app and held his phone out for Frank again, “I do believe it’s your turn.” He said, giving Frank a small smile. 

Frank wasn’t sure whether he should be annoyed, relieved, or grateful that Mr Way was still going to let him pick the music for their afternoon session. The whole mix of emotions confused him; it irritated him that Mr Way was just going to pretend like nothing had happened, like every other teacher Frank had ever had he was just gonna pretend he hadn’t seen Frank getting bullied, though a part of him was relieved that just like lunch time this was going to be relaxed and friendly. The whole thing was exhausting and Frank just really wanted to go home but he had to stay and be polite to catch up with his work so he nodded and reached out for Mr Way’s phone, glad when Mr Way didn’t pull his hand back like he had done at lunch. 

He was angry and in the mood for some angry music so he picked out his favourite Misfits album, handing the phone back to Mr Way when he’d pressed play. He didn’t miss the way Mr Way seemed to turn his nose up at his music choice, something that only irritated him even more and Frank had to look away from his teacher then and down at his work so he wouldn’t really lose his temper. If he just kept his head down and listened to the music then maybe he’d get his work done a lot faster and he could go home sooner. He thought Mr Way would go back to his own work then and leave him alone but no, he’d only just sorted his own papers into the order they needed to be and had started to read through the passage again when Mr Way stood up, interrupting his concentration. 

“I’m going to get some more coffee from the staff room, I shouldn’t be long. Do you want some?” He asked, looking down at Frank. 

Frank wasn’t sure that teachers were allowed to offer students drinks like that but then Mr Way had already bought him lunch the day before. The offer was still a pleasant surprise after how he was acting about the incident so Frank nodded a little, trying not to let that change his mind about being angry. He didn’t want to forgive Mr Way so soon, especially since he still wasn’t mentioning it at all and his jokes earlier had been pretty insensitive, but Mr Way would do one asshole thing only to counteract it by acting like a nice guy all over again, doing way more for Frank than any other teacher usually would and Frank wasn’t sure how he felt about him. A part of him still wanted to impress Mr Way, he still wanted Mr Way to like him. Maybe if he liked him then he would have done something about Chase instead of just ignoring it but then the part of Frank that kind of hated Mr Way just wanted to be pissed off at him and hold a grudge.  

He sighed and muttered a soft thank you, going back to his work when he was left alone in the classroom for the second time that day. With Mr Way gone instead of shuffling around in front of him and distracting him, Frank managed to actually concentrate on the work in front of him. Though he was tired and definitely just wanted to get it done as quickly as possible, Frank made sure to actually try his best on it instead of hurrying through it with no effort, somehow he didn’t think he would get away with that a second time.  

It didn’t take long before Mr Way got back with the two mugs of coffee, setting one down in front of Frank, “I didn’t know how you take it so I hope that’s okay.” He said as he set the mug down and went to sit back at his desk. 

“It’s okay, thank you.” Frank murmured, glancing over at him and giving him a polite smile even though it felt forced, reaching to take a sip of his coffee. He wasn’t sure whether he should bring up the incident or if he should wait to see if Mr Way was gonna bring it up but it felt awkward to be bringing it up now when he’d already been in the classroom for a while. It felt like Frank had lost his window for mentioning it and he kept quiet instead, settling for trying to get his work done instead. 

He was only working for another couple of minutes or so before he heard Mr Way turn the music down so much that Frank could barely hear it. It seemed a bit rude, especially since he had insisted it was Frank’s turn to pick the music and Frank had had to sit through music from a band he’d never listened to before at lunch (although he  _ had _ liked them) so even if Mr Way hadn’t liked the Misfits that much, it still seemed a bit rude to turn it off. Frank looked up at him curiously to see why he had, raising an eyebrow slightly when he saw Mr Way was already looking at him. Not casually or friendly like he’d been sitting at lunch either, Mr Way actually looked like a teacher for once, sitting up straight at his desk, leant a little forwards with his elbows resting on the desk as he looked over at Frank. So he’d turned the music down to get his attention then. 

Frank was about to ask what it was about when Mr Way spoke up, interrupting him before he even had a chance to speak. “You know I saw what happened in the hallways, right?”  

A little bit of hope sparked up in Frank again then, maybe Mr Way wasn’t going to do nothing after all. The coffee offer made a lot more sense now and Frank set his pen down so he could focus on his teacher, sipping the coffee he’d been given and nodding. He wasn’t sure what Mr Way expected him to say to that. He knew Mr Way had seen, yeah, there wasn’t much else to it except his burning questions about why Mr Way hadn’t done anything at the time.  

“So, they were picking on you?” Mr Way asked, sounding more curious than concerned although that didn’t register with Frank straight away and he nodded again, biting his lip shyly. 

“Yeah, same happened this morning too, it’s why I was late.” He explained with a frown, looking away from Mr Way’s intense gaze. He thought they were gonna have a serious talk, he thought he was going to have to explain everything else they had done to him over the years, he thought Mr Way was gonna ask him their names so he could report them. So it was a bit of a surprise when Mr Way just hummed as if he was satisfied with the answer before relaxing again, leaning back in his chair and putting his feet up on the desk, reaching for another book. 

Frank was confused. That was it? He frowned a little to himself, watching Mr Way for a moment, waiting for him to do something else, to  _ say  _ something else. Surely that couldn’t be it? But no, Mr Way just looked back at him with a raised eyebrow as if to ask Frank what he was looking at. 

“That’s it??” Frank asked, unable to hide his irritation now. He was beyond pissed off with Mr Way. What kind of teacher saw something like that and didn’t do anything about it? 

“What do you mean?” Mr Way asked, shrugging one shoulder as he looked over at Frank and sipped his coffee slowly. “You’re not a damsel in distress that needs saving Frank. I didn’t see those kids hitting you, and I didn’t see you standing up for yourself either, you just lay there.” 

“What else was I supposed to do?” Frank almost yelled, glaring over at Mr Way. “Aren’t you even going to report them?” 

“Frank, they didn’t hit you. That’s not enough to get them suspended and you know it. Nothing will be done by the higher-ups so what’s the point in reporting them?” Mr Way said, shaking his head. “I know how the system works, I’ve been in high school before and I know what they’ll do if they find out you reported it and now I’m a teacher, I know they won’t get suspended for it.”  

Frank was loathe to admit that actually made some sort of sense. And if he was honest, that was the exact reason he hadn’t reported any of it himself. But he wasn’t thinking rationally and he was beyond pissed off that Mr Way was acting so indifferent to what he had seen.

“That’s why you gotta stand up for yourself instead of just lying there next time.” 

Frank clenched his fists as he glared over at his teacher then, being polite was out of the question. He didn’t understand why Mr Way was acting like such an asshole and what he had done wrong to deserve Mr Way going from friendly and kind one minute to such a douche the next.  

“But they called me a fag!” Frank yelled, glaring over at Mr Way, coffee and work long forgotten. 

“Well, are you?” Was all his teacher asked, seeming hardly phased by Frank’s anger, still leaning back in his seat with his feet up, looking over at Frank with a curious expression, as if that was a perfectly innocent and reasonable question to be asking him. Frank really couldn’t believe that. The shock of the question had him struck dumb for a moment before his anger returned even more. He couldn’t deal with that right then. He was clearly wrong about Mr Way, rolling his eyes as he grabbed his bag and stood up, not even bothering to take his work with him as he headed towards the door. 

Only then did Mr Way sit up properly, frowning over at Frank. “Where do you think you’re going, Iero? You haven’t finished the work, sit back down, now.” He said sternly, finally starting to act like a teacher, only making Frank even more pissed off that Mr Way only seemed to act like that when it suited him. 

“I’ll finish it at home.” Frank shrugged, going back to grab it from his desk though he really had no plan on finishing it now. Fuck Mr Way and fuck his stupid class. The one class he’d been looking forward to, ruined because his teacher was like Jekyll and fucking Hyde. 

 “As sloppily as you did yesterday I assume?” Mr Way raised an eyebrow as he looked up at him, shaking his head and gesturing back to Frank’s seat, “You’re not leaving this classroom until you’ve at least finished the first half.” 

“You said at lunch I didn’t have to stay if I was sick or tired.” Frank reminded him, too pissed off to deal with this bullshit or to sit there and act polite to someone who was just acting like a complete asshole to him. Usually Frank would have been way too shy to just get up and leave or to speak to a teacher like this but he’d lost his temper and if Mr Way wanted to see him standing up for himself then, Frank was gonna prove to him he could. 

“But you’re not tired or sick, you’re just having a tantrum because I asked you a question so sit back down.” Mr Way muttered harshly, shaking his head. He seemed more irritated than angry or mad like any other teacher would have been though Frank really didn’t see fucking why, he was the one acting like a douche, asking horribly personal questions and making it seem like his bullies had a right to be picking on him. 

Still though, Frank really didn’t want to get a third detention or into anymore trouble so despite still wanting to kick stuff around and slam the fucking door before going home to just sleep, he slowly sat back down, setting the work back down but keeping eye contact with Mr Way the whole time and glaring straight at him. He tried to ignore him as best he could after that, keeping his head down and getting on with his work. He wanted even more than before to just get it done and get it over with. It was actually pretty upsetting that he had been so wrong about Mr Way and Frank supposed what was making him even more pissed off was that some part of him still wanted Mr Way to like him, some part of him still wanted to hang out with him at lunch times and afterschool, even after everything. 

He worked hard to get his work finished, not wanting to speak to Mr Way at all so even when he had finished correcting things on the sheet, he used the answer sheet to make sure he’d gotten things right and to mark his own work instead of asking Mr Way to go through it with him. In the end, he finished everything half an hour before he was due to be let out, he supposed that Mr Way would give him some excuse about planning his own writing to stay the extra half hour but he wasn’t about to just get up and walk out again, having lost some of his earlier confidence. 

“I’m finished. And checked it all too.” He grumbled instead after a moment, looking over at his teacher for the first time since the ‘argument’ when he’d tried to leave. He watched as Mr Way turned to check the time, trying not to get too offended when Mr Way seemed surprised that he had finished so early. 

“Let me have a look.” Mr Way said, holding his hand out for the sheet. He seemed to understand that he’d upset Frank a bit because even though he didn’t sound guilty or sorry, his voice was still a lot softer than it had been before, a lot different to how cocky and playful he’d seemed at lunch too. Frank had to remind himself that that didn’t make it okay, not wanting to forgive him so soon. He stayed silent, moody almost, as he handed his work over, watching as Mr Way scanned it. “Okay, this seems right. I guess you can go then. We’ll work on your response to the prompts in class tomorrow.” He said, handing the paper back to Frank. 

 A surprise, but a relief, Frank took the papers and shoved them back into his bag. Standing up and hurrying over to the door. He just wanted to get out of there and get home as soon as he could, muttering a quiet “see you tomorrow” as he left though he didn’t particularly care if Mr Way heard him or not. 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos keep me motivated to carry on :D


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